Readers' letters: Argentina's World Cup success was forged in Scotland

Beyond current Argentine player Alexis Mac Allister, whose ancestry can be traced back to Fife, it was two Scots, Alexander Watson Hutton and Alex Lamont, who were responsible for developing the game in the country. Indeed, Watson Hutton is considered “the father of Argentine football”. Born in the Gorbals in 1853, he emigrated to Argentina in 1882, where he taught at St Andrew’s Scots School in Buenos Aires and then went on to found the Buenos Aires English School.

In 1891, the Association Argentine Football League was established by another Scot, Alex Lamont, who was headteacher at St Andrew’s School. It is recognised as the first football league in the country and outside the British Isles. It lasted only one season and was won by a team of Scots from St Andrew’s.

Two years later, Watson Hutton established the Argentine Association Football League and restarted the tournament. In 1898 his school formed a football team which went on to become the most decorated team in Argentine football until its dissolution in 1911.

So, when witnessing the ecstatic scenes in Argentina following the win over England, spare a thought for the critical role Scots played in that nation’s footballing success.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Kick in the teeth

Raise a glass to Argentina? SNP MSP George Adam must be the happiest man on the planet this morning. As Del Boy might have said: “What a plonker.”

After defeating England on Wednesday, Argentinian players and supporters took the opportunity to hold up a sign claiming “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”.

Following the 1982 Argentinian invasion of the Falklands Islands – a British Protectorate then and now – PM Margaret Thatcher responded immediately, sending a strong British Task Force of warships and merchant ships carrying 3,000 troops. 45 commando (Royal Marines) famously yomped 56 miles in three days across East Falkland.

86 Royal Navy, 124 Army, 27 Royal Marines, 6 Merchant Navy, 4 Royal Fleet Auxiliary and eight Hong Kong sailors died in the Falklands War. Seven ships were lost and nine aircraft shot down – 255 British servicemen died. Three British civilians also died.

It was a long time ago now. Many of us still remember. Apparently this SNP buffoon does not. George Adam, like the English football team which lost to Argentina, and the rest of us, is British. Whether he likes it or not.

Doug Morrison, Tenterden Kent

Who to support?

Having had the majestic Charles Mountbatten-Windsor then the Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and lastly their Viceroy in Scotland the Wee Douglas tell us in succession that we Scots must cheer for England in the World Cup, perhaps Andy “King in the North of the far South” will tell us who to cheer for tomorrow now that England have been eliminated?

Ni Holmes, St Andrews, Fife

Stuck in the past

Union supporters seem stuck in the past, while Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are looking forward.

The internet has made it easy for retrophiles, fans of the past, to find each other and rebuild their identities around what’s gone. Retrophiles use history to reconstruct who they are, often through consumption and acquisition of symbols from a bygone era. That fits the modern unionist case perfectly. Much of the “Better Together” argument is retrophilia dressed up as politics: clinging to empire, the pound, and Westminster as they existed decades ago. It’s nostalgia for a UK that no longer exists, a late capitalist culture selling the past back to us.

But nations move on. Scotland voted to remain in the EU, rejected austerity, and consistently polls very high for self-determination. Northern Ireland’s demographics and the Protocol debate point the same way. Wales is debating its constitutional future more openly than ever.

The 21st century is about small, nimble, democratic nations working together as equals. Independence for Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales isn’t about rejecting our shared history. It’s about accepting that the future won’t look like 1945, 1979, or even 2014.

Unionism is living in the past. The future is independence.

Herbert Petrie, Dyce, Aberdeen

Sky high prices

My granddaughter was married recently Twenty two guests came for Nigeria for the wedding. One came by private jet but the plane was parked in London overnight due to the high charges at Edinburgh Airport, The objective of the airport is surely to attract business, and not to drive it away.

Alastair Paisley, Edinburgh

Skiing doos

As an English speaking Doonhamer living in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, all that tangled language and culture stuff, and the hyperbole of some of the recorded responses regarding Reform’s attempt to ban Gaelic from election material (your report, 15 July) was simply delightful.

Perhaps we could all just simply unite behind an attested English translation being required on all electoral material irrespective of what other language might feature. It could be a legal requirement similar to that of an imprint on electoral communications.

English is the lingua franca of the planet – not just the UK. That said, if English-speaking MPs don’t get why Cairngorm pigeons are not sgian dubhs (or the humour suggesting why they might be) then perhaps they should not be legislating on anything to do with Scotland. Perhaps the Cairngorm pigeon/sgian dubh (skee-an-doo) could become a sort of shibboleth pointing to an appreciation of how languages blend – a bit like a good blend of uisge beatha!

In fairness to the current relatively small contingent of Reform MPs in Westminster, they lack a Scottish Reform representative. I personally believe that to be to the detriment of both Reform and Scotland. I also believe it is up to the Scottish people to address this anomaly, should they see fit, at the next Westminster election. Hopefully they will see that Reform like all necessary reform is itself a work in progress but nevertheless constitutes the best political hope of reform that we as a country have had in a long time.

Dr Steven William Welsh, Stornoway, Western Isles

Conversion therapy

The ink is barely dry on Westminster’s draft Conversion Practices Bill, so I was astonished to read your report that LGBT groups are already arguing that it does not go far enough, urging Scottish ministers to introduce their own “comprehensive” legislation.

Scotland’s previous attempt to legislate backfired badly. When the Scottish government published its own draft bill at the beginning of 2024, it provoked strong opposition from across the political spectrum. Leading Scottish lawyers shredded the proposals, warning that they would crush free speech and religious freedom. The public reaction was every bit as furious. Parents were outraged at the prospect of being criminalised for refusing to let their teenager undergo irreversible sex-change surgery, and church leaders warned that they could face jail time for expressing Christian sexual ethics in prayer and pastoral conversation. By that September, the Scottish government had abandoned its plans, and asked Westminster to legislate for Scotland.

The Equality Network’s claim that the Westminster draft bill is not broad enough reveals the ambitions of those campaigning for such legislation. Under the proposed criminal offence, merely refusing to affirm someone’s claimed LGBT identity could result in a police visit. It is difficult to see how it could be any more far-reaching. The supposedly “very broad” healthcare exemption, which has attracted particular ire from campaigners, is also in reality little more than a fig leaf. It would do little to prevent the chilling effect on conscientious practitioners who refuse to affirm a young person’s belief that they were born in the wrong body.

Coercive behaviour, harassment, assault and sexual violence are already illegal under existing legislation. Scotland does not need a law that risks turning personal conversations, prayer and parental guidance into matters for criminal investigation.

Joanna Timm, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

Pay packages

I have been very critical of councils who plead poverty but still manage to support organisations like CoSLA, arguably providing “jobs for the boys”, and it was no surprise to see CoSLA bleating that the Scottish government had blocked plans for severance payments to councillors who lose their seats at the next election.

But why should councillors get severance payments? They are appointed and not employed. They are on fixed-term contracts and well paid for being so with responsibility payments for chairing committees. All of these payments are pensionable.

Someone in the private sector on a fixed-term contract does not get a golden goodbye, and there is no reason councillors should get one either.

So I must, probably, for my first time ever, congratulate the SNP government. Stopping these payments is the right thing to do, although it appears only to be a pause for a permanent scheme to be created.

Brian Barbour, Haddingon, East Lothian

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